The John Pearson Soda Works structure was built in several stages: The previous building on the site burned down in a devastating fire that affected most of Placerville in the 1850s.

[2] Scottish immigrant John McFarland Pearson built the lower portion of the building in 1859 as a commercial ice house.

[3] He chose to build in front of an idle mine shaft so he could use the underground rooms and tunnels to store ice at controlled temperatures.

Pearson later expanded into soda water; his sons added the brick second story in 1897 to house the bottling operation.

The structure held other businesses until the Pearson family sold the building in 1972 to antique collector Roger John Douvres, who restored the structure over a period of four years, using the lower section as an old-fashioned soda fountain and the upper portion as an elegant dining hall decorated in early 20th-century style.